Trade pacts with US, EU soon: Goyal

“The Free Trade Agreement with New Zealand  is the seventh free trade agreement that I am signing in the last three and a half years. Two more to go very soon in the next few months with the European Union (EU) and the United States of America,” the minister said at the signing of the India-New Zealand FTA.

After the agreements with the US and EU, India will have nine free trade agreements with 38 advanced economies opening doors to nearly two-thirds of global trade and nearly 65-70% of global GDP. “New Zealand adds vital strength to that arc of opportunity. This FTA is far more than an agreement on tariffs and rules of origin,” he added.

India and the EU have announced the conclusion of negotiations on their FTA on January 27. The work is on for preparing the legal text for signing by both sides. According to officials the text agreement with the EU would be ready by July.

India-US have already agreed on a framework for an interim trade agreement. Now both sides are working on the text of that agreement. Last week India officials led by chief negotiator Darpan Jain were in Washington between April 20 to April 23 to discuss the details of the trade pact.

During the meetings multiple areas such as Market Access, Non-Tariff Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Investment Promotion, Economic Security Alignment and Digital trade were discussed.

The interim deal based on the joint statement was to be finalised by March but the US Supreme Court on February 20 invalidated the reciprocal tariffs, leading the US to look at other laws to keep imposing additional tariffs on its trade partners.

Reciprocal tariffs were the main reason all trade partners of the US entered into negotiations with Washington for a deal to bring them down. With reciprocal tariffs gone, every country is now recalibrating its strategy. India’s focus has been on keeping the tariff advantage in the US against its competitors intact.